Professional rodeo cowboy Nick Lay never dreamed of appearing in a big movie, let alone doing so alongside one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Lay, an Oklahoma rancher, put his professional rodeo career on hold for three months to appear as an extra in Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon. According to FOX 12 Oregon, part of the film was filmed on his property.
“It was purely by luck,” Lay said. “They were filming near my ranch house in Oklahoma and they stopped and asked me, ‘Do you want to be in a movie?’ And I said, “Who doesn’t?”
Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the systematic murder of members of the Osage Nation for their oil-rich land in the 1920s. A story of trust and betrayal. The film centers on the loving but treacherous relationship between Molly Kyle (Lily Gladstone), a member of a large Osage family, and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a World War I veteran who comes to work for his corrupt uncle (Robert De Niro).
“They became one of the wealthiest tribes in America at that time,” Lay said. “And, of course, this led to the appearance of all the beggars, thieves and everyone who tried to kill them for the right to their heads and take their money and land.”
Starring Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese (director), Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Lay’s unexpected role as an extra came with an even more unexpected bonus: he shared lines with DiCaprio in the wedding scene.
Lay told FOX 12 he was very nervous when he first met DiCaprio.
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“I mean, when I first saw him and talked to him, I thought, ‘I loved you in Titanic.’ She could let you sit on that headboard. I mean, come on now.” No, but I was very nervous,” Lay recalls. “I didn’t even forget his name, DiCaprio, but I forgot his, you know, the role he played and all that. And by the time they started, you know, acting, I thought, ‘Oh, no, they were going to.'”
It was the opportunity of a lifetime – and all the steak and ice cream served on set was “great” – but for Lay it’s also personal: Lay is a member of the Cherokee Tribe and also serves as a liaison to crime victims for the Oklahoma tribe . . In this role, he works to find resources for Native Americans who are victims of violent crime.
“In Oklahoma, this happened to other tribes, members of the Cherokee tribes, other members of tribes where we got land grants, and they tried to take our land and livestock and everything else from us,” Lay said. “This is a story that needs to be told.”